The Irish standard., 1887-07-23
SPORT IN ALASKA.
Rivers Crowded with Salmon and the Air
Full of Flying Game.

Rivers Crowded with Salmon and the Air
Full of Flying Game.
At Nuchuk any amount Of sport is
obtainable. To begin with, the rivers
TEEN with salmon. These are Of va
rious kinds. The rivers close by
Nuchuk contain the hog~back, the dog,
and the silver varieties. There are
three miles to traverse to reach the
| nearest river, and here [ trusted my
self to one of the ftr.famed bidarkies.
The first one was too small, but the
next was large enough, and, with an
Indian boy in the hatch behind to help
me paddle, away we went across the
bay. Alongside was lashed our salmon
spear. The water was absolutely filled
with fish. disdained the hog-back,
and would have nothing but the silver
salmon. He was only to be found in
the upper pools. The river Swallowed
; and became g mere brooklet.
The salmon's backs projected above
the surface, for the depth was four
inches exactly. Rows Of the fish were
working their way upstream out of
the sea, and they scuttled away as we
advanced, wetting us from head to
foot, like miniature steamers with their
propellers half out of the water. But the
silver Salmon we were in quest of were
taking their ease in dignified manner
at the bottom of deep, placid pool
overshadowed by trees, and it required
all the length we could command in
the handle Of our spear to reach them
at that depth, We stepped cautiously
on to projecting rock, and gradually
inserted the point of the spear into the
water The first two lunges were suc-
cessful, and each time a lordly fish was
lifted on to the bank, struggling furi-
ously. When at last we tired Of the
sport ten salmon were all that we
dragged behind us to the canoe. There
were plenty of sea trout, too; the bot
tom of the pool appeared to be paved
with something dark and cloudy that
swayed to and fro with the current like
masses Of weed, But by degrees as we
watched the weed masses we perceived
them to be sea trout, and Ivy darting
the spear among them at random we
transtjxed q three pounder, which
looked inviting with his bright-red
spots.
We shot half q dozen ducks on the
way back, and might have bagged %
dozen more without going out Of our
way, had it not been such a work Of
art to charge the old n1uzzle~loading
trade-gun while sitting in the canoe.
Some of the ducks were black, with
red feet aud {; short-pointed tail; att
other kind of dnck had a white spot
upon its forehead, and a white bill, red
at the extremity, as though it were adj
dicted to intemperance. Other ducks
are black with white heads, or brown
with deep blue head aud neck, or white
with a red bill A flock OF one thou
sand coots tapped along the surface as
we disturbed them, and two thousand
black and white wings beat the water
with ringing, musical sound, like a
dozen chimes of distant bells. Some
wild swans showed up white against
the forest, and four or five long strings
of wild geese got up with harsh, un-
tuneful cries.
Shooting from Nuchuk ON other oc~
casions I bagged heron, snipo, ptarmi-
gan and blue grouse. When one Of
the latter was discovered, usually ON
the lower branches OF a spruce tree, it
was useless to attempt to induce it to
dy. Ii only remained to retire to such
distance that the bird should not be
blown to pieces and destroyed as food
One lovely October morning I found
myself gliding smoothly across the
CLASSY waters of Prince Williams 8
Sound. We were determined to shoot
some of the marmots whicl. inhabit
most of the mountain tops below the
snow Line, and running our bidarky
ashore we disembarked. A snail brown
speck seen far away among the trees
was a brown bear at one moment a
rush of wings startled lis as & flock of
half-white ptarmigan flew down from
above us; at another the shrill whistle !
of one of the marmots we had come to |
hunt. A careful scrutiny enabled us to
see him sitting by his hole, and a steady
shot secured us our dinner for the next
day, and very good one, too.-Fort-
nightly Recieao.